Millions of Internet users access web sites to view web content in different languages everyday. Most computers in the world allow users to type in Latin alphabets, which are also used for English. However, there are many languages that are not based on Latin alphabets (or Roman alphabets) and a lot of web content is based on these other languages. When users want to use computers or other types of computing devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cell phones, to enter characters, the computing devices need to have a program to allow such entering and to recognize the characters.
An “input method” is an operating system component or program that allows users to enter characters and symbols not found on their input device. For instance, input method allows users to input Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Indic characters using computer keyboards. It is commonly called input method editor (IME) in Microsoft Windows operating systems. Other operating systems may have their own names for the so called “input method.”
For a language that has multiple input methods, a user can select an input method and use the selected method to enter characters. If the user wants to use another input method to enter (or input) characters, the user will need to take actions, such as locate the other method and make a selection of the other method, to switch to the other input method.
It is in this context that embodiments of the present invention arise.